Chief State Solicitor to seek extra funding for barristers

The Chief State Solicitor's Office will need additional funding of €2.5 million this year for barristers' fees, partly due to activity in the Court of Appeal.

Separately, barristers’ fees paid by the Director of Public Prosecutions office for criminal appeals cases have increased by more than a third already this year, new figures show.

In November 2014, a new Court of Appeal was established to help deal with lengthy backlogs of cases at the Supreme Court.

In a statement to the Public Accounts Committee to be discussed on Thursday, Chief State Solicitor Eileen Creedon has said she will be seeking additional funding to cover extra expenditure on fees to barristers in 2015.

Ms Creedon said the Court of Appeal had resulted in a faster throughput of appeal cases, which would have remained pending in the Supreme Court list for a number of years, and this had added to counsel fees.

A number of significant cases, including challenges to the Constitution and the recent referendums, had also contributed to the office not being able to remain within its estimate.

Sharp increase

While the office had estimated counsel fees at €9.6 million for the year, it now expects to pay €12.1 million.

In his statement to the committee, deputy director at the DPP's office Barry Donoghue also highlighted the impact of the new Court of Appeal on fees his office paid to barristers.

Up to July this year, the court processed 280 criminal appeal cases, while to the end of October, fees amounting to €944,000 were paid to counsel for appeals, compared with €581,000 in all of 2014. In total, €13.7 million was paid to barristers by the DPP’s office in 2014.

Mr Donoghue said three staff were recruited to deal with the “sharp increase” in the number of criminal appeal cases and a dedicated appeals section had been established at the office.

Two lawyers and three support staff were also recruited for a new dedicated communications and victims liaison unit, set up as part of an EU victims’ directive.

Under the directive, which will come into effect on November 16th, victims and families will have the right to seek reasons from the DPP when cases are not prosecuted.